From the Classroom: Kids Gone Wild–Gangs, Sexting, And More! Part 2
Hi, Annapolis! This is the second part of my three-part column covering issues facing teens today, such as gangs, sexting, and the internet. You read yesterday’s column, right?
This is an era in which there are too few positive role models for young women (Ahem, Sarah Palin). This causes them to exhibit strange behaviors such as mooning over the Jonas Brothers, obsessing over Twilight, and taking naked pictures of themselves with their cell phones and sending them to their boyfriends.
Then they break up with the boyfriends, who, to get revenge, sends the photos to the whole school.
I discovered the only way to stop the sexting problem–and as an added bonus all my love life woes as well. Girls need to stop breaking up with sensitive guys. (If any of my ex-girlfriends read this, you should be taking notes.)
Of course, that’s never going to happen (I know from experience).
So maybe they should just stop taking photos of themselves. I mean, really. Who are you trying to impress? Guys? Look, guys are impressed by the Saw movies. You really don’t have to try very hard to impress them. And you certainly don’t want to take your clothes off to do it. That’s a Miley Cyrus move. Don’t go there.
Just think–nothing ever really goes away on the Internet. What’s going to happen when, twenty years from now, your kid sees that?
“Mommy, what is this?”
You’ll need a quick response, such as, “That’s not me, honey. That’s Miley Cyrus.”
or
“No hablo Ingles.”
Just don’t do it. It’s a bad idea.
Now, on to the Internet– an issue I feel I know a thing or two about.
According to the State’s Attorney, gangs are starting to recruit online. I suppose they had a hard time getting ads in The Capital. I wonder what one of those gang sites would look like. It might have a little merchandise link where they sell cool gang hats. Or it might have a poll for you to vote on which rival gang members you hate the most. Of course, they’d have a ‘get involved‘ tab. Maybe a ‘donate’ link so that members can make donations through PayPal. Maybe a link to their fan page on Facebook. I dunno, I’m just not seeing it.
The real issue, the State’s Attorney’s office says, is online predators. Believe me, I understand. I learned the consequences of talking to unknown people online–a couple months ago, in fact. I was about to give up my personal blog (now-defunct) when someone commented on it, saying that they’d never commented but they really liked my postings and that I should keep going.
I was scared. I figured it was some creepy old guy who was attracted to me. But I thought hey, what the heck, and left it up. It turned out to be my next girlfriend. So I guess I was half right.
Still, the danger of being stalked by predators online is real. Don’t shut yourself out to social networking, but just tread with caution.
Signing off safely,
Category: From The Classroom
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